Tag: Webinars for lead generation

Sometimes you don’t think you have time to do it. Maybe you don’t see the importance in doing it, or just don’t know the best way to do it. But regardless the reason, following-up with potential customers after your webinar is vital to your business operation. Think about it: 24 hours after you wrap-up a webinar, you have the perfect opportunity to capture your attendees’ attention while the information is still fresh in their minds.

AnyMeeting makes it simple to follow-up with attendees after a webinar concludes, with easy-to-use email and survey features. In the AnyMeeting application, you can email attendees to thank them for participating in your online event, share a link to the webinar recording, and close with a call to action and/or some sort of incentive. You can also send attendees to a survey directly following your event, to gain presentation feedback and get a sense of attendee engagement.

So, what will you get in return when you follow-up?

An opportunity to qualify webinar leads: Savvy marketers already know that in general, webinars produce highly engaged leads. But exactly which of your audience members are most interested in your product or service? Which are your best leads? You will know the answer to these questions once you receive responses from your follow-up efforts, and from there, you can determine which webinar attendees are the best leads to pursue.

Attendee feedback – Using the AnyMeeting survey tool, you are provided the opportunity to gauge attendee demographics, ratings for the webinar presenter, content, and technology, plus any custom questions you may have for participants. It’s important to gain feedback on each of your webinars, so you can improve and evolve as a presenter, and determine the direction you’d like to go when it comes to online presentations.

Webinar ROI: Ensure that time and money put into creating, promoting, and hosting webinars is worth your while. Are you attaining enough business to offset costs associated with webinar presentations? If, so, GREAT! Keep hosting webinars on a regular basis and watch your business flourish. If not, it might be time to figure out why, and work on your webinar presentation skills.

Follow-up doesn’t stop after the post-webinar email and survey. Follow-up is fluid, and should continue with the leads gathered from the initial round, through sales demos, presentations, etc. It’s now up to you and your sales team to take communication to the next level. For that, you might need a great online meeting product…😉

You probably already know that holding webinars is a great way to grow your business. But how often do you hold webinars? To truly maximize the benefits, it’s smart to hold webinars continuously, delivering a stream of value into your business. Here’s the kind of value I’m talking about:

Generate quality leads: Webinars are a smart tool when it comes to lead generation, but do you realize the quality of leads you are achieving? Your webinar attendees have registered for your event because they are interested in what you have to offer, and in addition, they are providing contact information, demographic information, and are committing their valuable time to listen and learn from YOU! With proper follow-up, these valuable attendees ultimately become paying customers!

Great content marketing strategy: With content marketing trends shifting to more interactive and visual materials, webinars and webinar recordings are an ingenious way to distribute your valuable content. According to a recent report from Content Marketing Institute, B2B Content Marketing 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America, 66% of B2B marketers said that webinars are one of the most effective tactics for content marketing; 62% said videos (like your webinar recordings!) are most effective in content creation and distribution.

Establishes you as an “expert” and “thought leader”: When your name and brand are attached to a successful and informative webinar, you are the expert. Once word gets out that your webinars are worth attending, and that you are a credible leader in your industry, attendees will flock, leads will spawn, and business will flourish. It’s that simple.

Helps you practice public speaking: Bright lights and live audiences can be exceptionally daunting when you haven’t done it much, but webinars can be a stepping stone towards being a great public speaker. Getting comfortable speaking to your online audience from the comfort of your office will help build up your confidence — especially when you start seeing all the positive feedback filling the online text chat! The more you do it, the more of a guru will become, and public speaking engagements will become much less intimidating.

Partnership opportunities: Bringing in partners as “guest hosts” is a strategic way to build stronger business relationships, expand your customer-base, and bring fresh content to your audience. Not only will you keep things fresh, but you will ultimately maximize your brand’s exposure by broadcasting your webinar to a wider audience, and generate new leads.

Helps you hone-in your message: As a business leader, you want to make sure that when you speak to prospects, your message resonates and enforces your value proposition and market position. When you do this on a regular basis, you will get better and better, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. In addition, be sure to survey attendees after each webinar, and include questions that will help you assess if your presentation was effective in relaying your message. Incorporate this feedback and with each new webinar, you will further refine the message that resonates with your customers.

By Jennifer GregoryJennifer Gregory is a journalist with over 17 years professional writing experience. Jennifer blogs via Contently.com.

While businesses often use webinars primarily for finding new customers, a common mistake is not worrying about generating leads until after the webinar is over.

The key to turning a webinar into increased business is to integrate the goal of attracting new customers throughout the entire webinar process – from the first brainstorming meeting to following up with attendees afterwards.

Decide on Your Goal for the Webinar

The first step in creating a webinar that produces tangible results is to determine exactly what you want the outcome to be from the event. Do you want to sign 12 new customers? Are you looking to increase your relationships with your current clients? Or would the most profitable result for your company be to entice your existing customers to buy additional add-on products?

If you set a specific and tangible goal for the webinar to achieve then you can make each decision related to the event with that outcome in mind.

Pick a Topic that Solves a Problem

Once you have decided on your goal, have a brainstorming session for different topics that will help achieve your desired result. If you are stuck on a direction, ask some of your current customers or professional contacts for their ideas. Most people are more than happy to give you their opinion.

Wayne Turmel, president of Greatwebmeetings.com, says that it is important to focus your topics toward ways that you can help solve your client’s problems instead of simply promoting your own products. For example, instead of a webinar on the new release of your software, he recommends picking a topic such as “Three Top Problems You Have with Your Business – And How We Can Help Solve Them.”

Invite the Right People

If 100 people attend your webinar, but very few of them are the target audience, then your webinar will not achieve the goal you set.

“The trick is not to get bodies to attend, it’s to get the right bodies to attend,” says Turmel. “Target your webinar to the people who can move through your sales cycle.” He suggests partnering with associations and guest speakers to extend your professional reach.

Connect with Your Audience during the Webinar

By working to create a connection with your audience during the webinar, you will have a higher success rate of closing business from the leads. In addition to a professional presentation, provide additional content as you talk, such as anecdotes of how a technique worked in real life or a software shortcut that only insiders know about.

Monica Isabel Martinez, Director of Professional Development at the Texas Computer Education Association recommends making the webinar as interactive as possible by using surveys or having the audience create a demo during the webinar.

“Interactivity is the key to retaining the attendee’s attention, and improving content retention therefore provides more value to the attendee,” says Martinez.

Follow Up

After the last participant logs off the webinar, you may feel relieved that the webinar is over, but the real work is actually just beginning. Follow up with each participant to get their feedback on the webinar and talk about any business problems that your product or service can help them solve.

By keeping the goal of generating new leads and business at the forefront of your mind during each phase of the webinar, the time you spend will result in new customers for your company. And you will have a great contact list of people to invite to your next webinar.